Mombos, if you choose in-home care for her now please keep in mind that you should look down the road on this journey and consider that there may be a time when you would like to be done with in-home care as her cognitive or medical condition changes. It will be very important now to make sure her legal ducks are in a row (she has a PoA, a Living Will, a Last Will) and that her FPoA has spoken with an elder law attorney or Medicaid Planner for CO. One of the worst scenarios is when an LO is "aging in place" at home only to have that care not work out (financially, strategically, whatever) and then the family has no immediate option for a solution for the LO. There are many of these examples in the Burnout topic of this forum. It's so good that you are asking this question early on.
I live in Littleton CO too! Both of my folks lived at The Gardens at Columbine (Platte Canyon & Ken Caryl) since 2015; mom in the Memory Care bldg since June of 2019, where they both received excellent care, albeit expensive. Before that they were at Brookdale which I DO NOT recommend at ALL.
The pros: 24/7 caregivers available to help with all ADLs; 3 meals served each day in a beautiful dining room (overlooking the awesome & extensive gardens at the ALF mentioned), in house PT & OT as needed, in house medical doctors come in to see the residents weekly and/or as needed; activities galore; entertainment/dance floor/library/buffet holidays served to families and residents; mini bus for outings/shopping/doctor visits and appointments w/i a 5 or 6 mile radius; socialization with peer group of the same ages; after dad died, the women swooped in and took care of mom/brought her into the dining room and got her involved in life again which was priceless; spacious apartments with kitchenettes; autonomy for the senior; cleaning services/laundry services included.
The Cons: Cost. Complaining about food which is The Law in all managed care residences from time to time no matter WHAT :); management gets to make the rules about Covid and masks and when visits can happen, etc.; there can be wait times for service (when a resident pulls the cord for a caregiver to come help them, there can be a 15 minute wait which the resident gets angry about); higher than normal turnover in caregivers & nurses/employees due to lower than average wages & nature of the job.
So for our family, AL living has been a blessing. The caregivers have been wonderful to my parents the entire 7 years of their residence, so I do recommend The Gardens, but I will say that after the owner died (it was privately owned since it opened in 2000), his children put the management in corporate hands now, so things have declined as a result. It's nearly impossible to find a non-corporate run ALF these days, however, but that would be my #1 recommendation for an ALF, if possible. Corporate run facilities = Greed and maximizing THEIR profits and bottom line. Period.
I can't give you thumbs up OR thumbs down about home care, only to say that I worked for a large in-home agency for about a year. I had no training and they asked me no questions about what I was or was not qualified to do. The agency charged the customer more than 3x what they paid me per hour. There was little to no consistency with the caregivers who quit at a moment's notice. So if I were to call in sick, for instance, the client was out of luck for that day. While in home care sounds like a great idea on paper, oftentimes the logistics of it can become a nightmare. Vs. AL life, there is always staff on site 24/7.
We pretty much had to put my mom in an assisted living place. We, her children, couldn't spend the amount of time to do 24 hour care. She is in an WC and blind and cannot cook, clean, and do insulin injections...so it was time for her to leave home. Also hiring 24 hour help is almost or more costly than the AL. We got her into an AL that is 3 miles from me so I can still do things for her. Even in AL, she needs help from us weekly. There always something to do, hearing aids fixed, phone issues, and picking up stuff for her at stores...I'm not complaining but just saying it's much easier and safer having her in AL and she seems fine with it. She likes being waited on and would love it if they would bring her meals to her room. lol. But she is expected to go to the dinning room. Anyway, she only has enough money for about 3 years there so after that not sure what we will do.
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The pros: 24/7 caregivers available to help with all ADLs; 3 meals served each day in a beautiful dining room (overlooking the awesome & extensive gardens at the ALF mentioned), in house PT & OT as needed, in house medical doctors come in to see the residents weekly and/or as needed; activities galore; entertainment/dance floor/library/buffet holidays served to families and residents; mini bus for outings/shopping/doctor visits and appointments w/i a 5 or 6 mile radius; socialization with peer group of the same ages; after dad died, the women swooped in and took care of mom/brought her into the dining room and got her involved in life again which was priceless; spacious apartments with kitchenettes; autonomy for the senior; cleaning services/laundry services included.
The Cons: Cost. Complaining about food which is The Law in all managed care residences from time to time no matter WHAT :); management gets to make the rules about Covid and masks and when visits can happen, etc.; there can be wait times for service (when a resident pulls the cord for a caregiver to come help them, there can be a 15 minute wait which the resident gets angry about); higher than normal turnover in caregivers & nurses/employees due to lower than average wages & nature of the job.
So for our family, AL living has been a blessing. The caregivers have been wonderful to my parents the entire 7 years of their residence, so I do recommend The Gardens, but I will say that after the owner died (it was privately owned since it opened in 2000), his children put the management in corporate hands now, so things have declined as a result. It's nearly impossible to find a non-corporate run ALF these days, however, but that would be my #1 recommendation for an ALF, if possible. Corporate run facilities = Greed and maximizing THEIR profits and bottom line. Period.
I can't give you thumbs up OR thumbs down about home care, only to say that I worked for a large in-home agency for about a year. I had no training and they asked me no questions about what I was or was not qualified to do. The agency charged the customer more than 3x what they paid me per hour. There was little to no consistency with the caregivers who quit at a moment's notice. So if I were to call in sick, for instance, the client was out of luck for that day. While in home care sounds like a great idea on paper, oftentimes the logistics of it can become a nightmare. Vs. AL life, there is always staff on site 24/7.
Good luck!
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